


Paper Hearts

by darlingargents



Series: Ladies Bingo 2017/2018 [4]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Community: ladiesbingo, Established Relationship, F/F, Femslash February, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Marriage Proposal, Valentine's Day, adorable gfs are adorable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 13:02:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13659522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingargents/pseuds/darlingargents
Summary: Artemis thought she might know where this day was going, and if she was right it she was very, very excited.





	Paper Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> For the Ladies Bingo prompt:  **Someone / Something is Hidden / Camouflaged**. This is fluffy beyond words, I'm so sorry. I thought I had outdone myself for cavity-inducing fic this month already, but it turns out I hadn't.
> 
> Also, happy early Valentine's Day. I don't think I'll have time to upload on the day of, so here it is :)

It was February 14th, and it was Artemis and Zatanna’s fourth Valentine’s Day together, and Artemis was nervous beyond words.

For weeks, it had been building up. She knew Zatanna was hiding something, and from the sharp increase in her girlfriend’s stress levels, hastily cut-off phone conversations, and frantic late-night pacing over the last week, she figure that it was something to do with Valentine’s day.

The previous years had been… good. Their first Valentines together, they’d been called into work and Artemis had gotten injured, so they’d spent the night in a med bay. They’d barely had time to trade kisses before the day was out. The second, they’d had the day off, so they’d gone on a walk, a date, and marathoned sitcoms while eating chocolates late into the night. The third, they’d been too busy to celebrate.

So Valentines, generally, was not a huge thing for them. Which made this all the more alarming.

Because Artemis thought she might know where this day was going, and if she was right it she was very, very excited. But she thought maybe she was wrong, and if she was wrong, it was going to be extremely awkward.

So she was trying not to think about it, and it wasn’t working at all.

Suffice to say, when she got home that night — following a cryptic text from Zatanna saying to hurry home with a smiley face — she was bracing herself. And when she opened the front door of their apartment, feeling almost exactly like she always did when entering an area of unknown threat level, her whole body was braced for impact.

What she found was… nothing. The living room and foyer looked the same as usual — papers strewn over the coffee table, gaming controllers sitting on the couch, shoes all around the door. Artemis closed the door, kicked off her shoes into the pile, and walked into the kitchen.

“Zee?” she called, flicking on a light in the kitchen. It looked the same as usual, too. And she didn’t hear an answer. Maybe… maybe Zatanna wasn’t even here. Maybe they were breaking up. Maybe this was her way of letting Artemis down gently.

Artemis refused to let her anxiety show, but as she dropped her purse on the table and opened the fridge, her mind was spinning, giving her a million terrible explanations. Zatanna was leaving her. Zatanna was dead. Their entire relationship had been a hallucination—

Her mind was so occupied that it took her almost a minute of staring into the fridge to see what was in it. There was… a cake, sitting on the shelf. An ice cream cake, still in the package.

Artemis’s favourite kind.

Her heart stopped, and started again, as a smile crept onto her face. Whatever this was, it wasn’t bad. Not entirely, at least. This was celebration food. She actually looked around the fridge now. There was also a bunch of ingredients for what was clearly one of Artemis’s favourite meals, ready to be made soon, and a bottle of champagne and a carton of orange juice.

Celebration.

Artemis closed the fridge and turned around. She couldn’t stop smiling.

“ _Laever_!”

Everything went bright, and then colourful.

For a long moment, Artemis didn’t understand what she was seeing. There was a ridiculous amount of pink and red. Paper hearts on every surface — walls, the fridge, the table, even on the floor. The table was cleared, and set for dinner, with two tapering candles and a red tablecloth that they only used for special occasions.

And in the middle of it all was Zatanna, looking more nervous than Artemis had ever seen her. She looked almost sick, but completely determined. Artemis felt her smile growing even wider as she looked at her.

After a moment of eye contact, Zatanna gave a small smile, though she still looked practically terrified. Nevertheless, her hands didn’t shake as she lifted a small black box in front of her, and dropped to one knee.

Artemis thought her heart was going to burst from joy. She was crying. She didn’t think she’d ever cried from joy before.

She’d thought maybe this was it — that Zatanna was planning to propose. But she hadn’t let herself seriously consider it. And now the full impact was hitting her all at once.

“Artemis,” Zatanna said. “I love you. And I’m not good at speeches, so I’m just going to say it. Will you marry me?”

Artemis flung her arms around Zatanna’s neck, almost bowling her over, and they knelt together on the kitchen floor surrounded by paper hearts. “Yes,” she said into Zatanna’s neck. “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes—”

She would’ve kept saying it forever, but Zatanna managed to get at the right angle to kiss her, and, well. Words weren’t needed anymore.


End file.
